Centerville PD hosts neighborhood watch meeting

CENTERVILLE — The Centerville Police Department hosted a neighborhood watch meeting for the Eagle Springs subdivision March 21.

The meeting was led by Centerville Police Chief Cedric Duncan. Councilman Edward Armijo and Councilman Bob Bird were also in attendance as residents of Eagle Springs. 

The main reason for this meeting was to address recent crime trends in Centerville. Chief Duncan said there were 21 aggravated assaults, 20 burglaries and 240 cases of thefts in 2023. Most thefts were considered shoplifting or larceny, as Duncan described. There were only 12 cases of vandalism. However, there were 121 juvenile calls last year. Duncan mentioned that many calls involved parents scared of disciplining their child and they would call the police to deal with this issue. 

“There is no law saying that you cannot discipline your child in the State of Georgia. If the child is telling your parents, ‘If you touch me, I’m calling the police and you’re going to jail’, that is not true,” he said. 

Another major crime trend that was discussed was 128 cases of family violence. No matter who the aggressor is, male or female, the police are mandated to make an arrest. 

“Any time we see any abuse, we are mandated by law to do something. We are mandated now to act on a first call,” Duncan said. 

Duncan also provided crime trends for 2024. So far, there have been only three aggravated assaults, four burglaries, 15 thefts, six cases of vandalism, and 22 juvenile calls. 

He also mentioned the city’s updated curfew in response to a Feb. 3 shooting near Galleria Mall. The shooting, involving teenagers, killed a 14-year-old male and led to two more injured.

“The incident at the mall struck home. The juvenile was too young to be out by themselves. We cut the [curfew] from 11 o’clock during the week and 12 o’clock during the weekends to 10 o’clock Sunday through Saturday,” Duncan said. 

According to city ordinance, a juvenile must have parental supervision after curfew. An exception was made for juveniles returning home from church, work, or school events. 

Duncan also mentioned trends within the agency. These included three pursuits, seven uses of force, and four accidents involving patrol cars. Duncan also expressed that no officers have used biased profiling.

“We have no records of any officer in the Centerville Police Department profiling any race within the city,” he said. 

For agency goals, Duncan wants to bring more standardization. 

“When I say standardization, I want each officer that works here to work a call beginning to end the exact same way,” he said. 

Duncan has also asked the city for more resources to expand the department. 

“I feel that four officers each shift within Centerville would give us enough time to answer each call within the city and give that call the time it needs,” he said. 

Also in the meeting, residents of the Eagle Springs neighborhood expressed some of their concerns, including increased littering in the subdivision, cars passing the stop sign near the clubhouse on Eagle Springs Drive, a speed limit sign that was knocked down and never replaced, and motorists using the turn lane going into the subdivision as a passing lane.

At the meeting, Councilman Armijo spoke on its importance.

“The chief and I have been talking about having more of these types of events for other communities as well to hear their concerns. I think that this has been a really good idea for you guys to come out and do this. We’ll do this more often so that we can have an opportunity to follow up with you,” Armijo said. 

Toward the end of the meeting, Armijo gave his praises to the Centerville Police Department. 

“We’ve got an outstanding police force here in Centerville. They respond to Eagle Springs in a minute’s notice. They are very responsive to our concerns,” Armijo said. 

The city of Centerville plans on having more neighborhood watch meetings in the future. 

HHJ News